a guy who is an instructor in what we call the drunk school courses you have to attend if you are convicted of DUI said distracted drivers are worst than drunk drivers, they cause more accidents, so now they are teaching it the impaired driving course

I think they just raised the fine in Ontario for texting while driving

Yeah. In NYC it is something like Using an Electronic Device While Driving. Like $ 200plus fine and I think 2 or 4 points. It is their hot button ticket nowadays, like they get bonus points for writing them. Seatbelt used to be their fave.

@surfer, that's the law here, too. Stopped at a stoplight is considered to be still in traffic. There was a story in our local paper about a guy who got a ticket because he swiped the slider sideways to activate the maps on his phone. It has to be completely hands free as soon as you're in traffic. Interestingly enough, the way the worded the law originally forgot to specify that all devices be hands-free, so up until a year or so ago, there were cases being thrown out because the driver said they were fast-forwarding to the next song – the same as changing the radio – and not texting, talking, or interacting with the GPS. Burden of proof is on the accuser and it would've been more expensive to track and pursue the case, so they threw them out and changed the law.

I find it interesting that you can have a convo with a passenger, change the station on your radio but the law doesn't think you can handle those tasks on your electronic device. Mind you, I agree with the law. However, I text using voice recognition. What's the diff? If I were talking into a recorder there wouldn't (probably) be a ticket. Sigh..I guess it's for those who cannot do that and you can't decipher between the two for the law.

Sherry, when people are looking in their laps, and both hands aare occupied at the same time, it is much more dangerous than glancing over at people in your car. I'd rather see people talking on the phone! The texting…there is NOTHING safe about it, and if your email/text/posts are worth risking everyone's life around you, you are a fucking piece of shit.

I don't think having a conversation with a passenger in the car is the same as having a conversation on a phone. The passenger adapts to different traffic situations – say, not whining about some imagined problem while you're trying to merge onto the expressway. The speaker on the other end of the phone has no idea.

And texting while in motion is just awful. A texting bicyclist ran into my daughter a few years back. My daughter was OK, but she had tire tracks on her face.

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